It was Jessi's life
by story-geek
Summary: Jessi was usually so good at keeping her family life and friends together. Now everything seems to be spinning out of control and including her life, and there's not a thing that she can seem to do about it!


I do not own the characters of the BSC- Scholastic and Ann M. Martin does. Most of the Characters are based on the book, and some are not.

**-Chapter 1-**

She did not know what type of experience she would have, going to see Becca, but regardless of that, she was glad to take a trip away from home. Her mother AND father were grating on her last nerve, and the trip really would have done her well. She was soooo happy when her mother told her that she COULD go and stay with Becca for a whole month! In Toronto, Ontario Canada. It would be the perfect get-away from Stoneybrook.

She could hardly believe that she was back- even though it was going on four years since she got done with her college years. She always thought that life would remain in New York, where she did a comprehensive, six-year study of Theatre and Dance and even had just a little stint on broadway. She was so far along in her studies and had so much promise. That is- until Roman came along.

Roman was a guy that she met through a mutual friend from the Fine Arts University of New York. He and Jessi quickly became close and in less than a month, became the same as a 'Hot Hollywood Couple'. They did everything together and were so gorgeous that people became envious of them whenever they were spotted together. They were totally and completely inseparable.

Three months rolled around and Roman decided that he wanted to 'put a ring on it'. Jessi became engaged! Mallory had promised to come up from Stoneybrook to be her Maid-Of-Honor. So did the other baby-sitters-- to be bridesmaids. Secretly, they were really worried about Jessi because the engagement was So Fast!! But no matter what questions or concerns they voiced, Jessi was determined to get married, and would get married right after the seven- way phone conversation that all of the Baby-Sitters had, if it were possible. NOBODY would rain on her parade! She would not listen. So therefore, the only step for the baby-sitters to do, would have been to show her unconditional love and support and to be there for her, should anything go wrong. Nothing did seem to go wrong for a very long time- except for the fact that Jessi's family would not speak with her. They were not very pleased with her decision. They were in Conneticut, and she was in New York making hasty choices. They were very concerned about the possibility of drugs playing a role in Jessi's incomprehensible decisions, and they were just extremely embarrassed.

Jessi was not on drugs, nor did she smoke dope. She was just in love. 'Love makes you do crazy things', was her only explanation to her family. Usually, Roman was right there in her embrace somewhere when she was on the phone with her parents, making it hard to have an honest conversation with them. An honest conversation where she could really go off and tell her parents to go and screw themselves and that it was her life, but she did not want Roman to see her true temper like that. She would save it for a day that she would have to use it if he ever made her mad. Other than that, she would be Roman's angel.

When her parents explained to her that within three months, you still would not really know somebody, Jessi decided and along with Roman, to move in together. That decision totally floored her parents! Move off of campus, where she could go and practice dance anytime and at her disposal, to live in rough part of New York, Brooklyn, with a guy that she met just basically 'yesterday?' It was more than her parents could take- and more that they were willing to take. 'Jessi, who?' was what their older daughter became to them, after the first day that they moved in together.

About two months after moving in, Jessi and Roman quickly found out that for them, opposites really Did Not attract. It was not long before each other's different habits got on the other's nerve. Jessi loved deep late night conversations, but often found herself talking to herself or grabbing up the phone to talk with Mallory because Roman fell asleep while she was talking!! It seemed as though he loved to chose her chat time with him as 'night-night' time, because he never stayed up through the first five minutes of any of her late night discussions.

Roman liked to freeze the apartment down and Jessi liked to stay moderately warm. Jessi loved cleaning up house for him and cooking for him- Roman loved not paying attention to details and throwing things around and take-out.

Jessi liked talking about their problems and Roman loved to shout about his anger. Jessi was becoming completely miserable. Coupled life was not what she thought that it would be. She decided to subtly change things or attempt to, because she really and honestly was not so sure about marriage herself, and the doubt that her parents put in her head did not help matters in the least. She had suggested that they took a time-out from each other to try to work on each other individually before they came together, but Roman laughed about it the whole time that she suggested it. He was still laughing, when she packed up and moved back on campus the following day. He was still laughing, when a week later, he passed her by with another girl on his arm.

He rudely told her that if she was woman enough to walk out on him, then she was woman enough to realize that she was not the only woman in his life. It was terrible and the worst feelings that Jessi ever had to deal with.

Her grades dropped. Her slim figure went up and down the scales and she found herself becoming obsessed with Roman – who easily ignored her. She really got depressed and everything about Jessi Ramsey changed. She hated dancing and only wanted to mope around all day long thinking about Roman. Her roommate, who had met Mallory, called her up in Stoneybrook to let her in on her friend's depression. Soon after, Mallory and the other baby-sitters were in town, and along with Jessi's parents, to try to persuade her to come back to Stoneybrook to get away from the craziness which became her New York life.

Jessi graduated during the week that her family and friends were in New York and instead of looking forward to real roles in Broadway productions, she was looking at the Help Wanted section of the Stoneybrook Classifieds.

She worked a few jobs here and there, receptionist and secretary and even as a Teacher's Aide in a Local Dance School but her dancing passion was never quite the same and she quit. Only three days after starting. She opted to just stay at home and wait for something in her life to pop out at her. Her next birthday would find her at twenty-eight and she was still waiting to find her passion to pop out at her.

Her parents had endless arguments with her about her being stagnant in life- but could not reach her. What could they do? She was their eldest, and they loved her no matter what. Therefore, they opted to just show her love and affection and just hope for better days. Plus, that meant that Jessi was at their disposal.

Life was not easy for Jessi. She was emotionally abused by her parents on a daily basis. They called her 'fat' when she put on weight, and 'skinny' when she lost weight. They yelled at her whenever THEY had bad days at work, and just totally took advantage of the fact that Jessi had nothing of her own and therefore HAD to deal with them. It was why had things not went sour, Jessi would have loved the opportunity to live in New York and be married- so that she would be sure to never come back home to bad memories of her abusive childhood. But life just had a way of throwing rotten apples in the way of everything and plans change. Jessi cried herself to sleep a lot, as she could not seem to find happiness. Mallory was not good enough for her and besides that, she did not want Mallory to know her family's business, so she dodged Mallory's calls if they came in more than once a week, and purposely distanced herself from the rest of the BSC. Jessi built a wall around herself and shut a lot of people out.

Therefore, a trip to Canada was what Jessi needed.

"You paid for her trip to Canada? Now honey, WHY would you do that? For JESSI?"

Jessi could hardly believe her ears. Her father was in the next room, deriding her mother for buying her ticket.

"What's wrong? You don't think that it was a good idea?" Her mother asked.

"She goes over there and stays for so LONG? She needs to be here looking for a job!" Her father said.

"Your friend told Jessi to come work for him at his Law Firm. You would not insist that she goes, and a few of your friends invited her to work for them and you see that she does not want to take it- you won't make her, so what do you want me to do, exactly?" Her mother asked.

"Okay, okay then. You win. I can see us investing a lot of money to give her and Becca for spending and different things like that, but this is all up to you, of course,"

Jessi tuned the rest of her parents conversation out. She really hated her father at times. He said the most stupid things! Her mother finally, _finally_ did something nice for her- after just the day before telling Jessi how she hated having her as a daughter, and her father was making her feel guilty for it. Boy. She could not wait to get away.

But then, Jessi remembered her nasty her sister Becca had gotten in attitude- she was just like their parents- mean and potentially abusive towards Jessi, and she braced herself. Three years ago they took a family trip to Canada to see a cousin with whom Becca was staying in Canada, and this was before she got herself situated and boy- was Becca rude! Their cousin had Becca and Jessi staying in the same room and first off, Becca said that she could not share a bed with Jessi and made her stay on the floor. She made fun of Jessi's bulges when she put on clothing and she chastised her whenever she said that she was hungry. She was always glaring at Jessi whenever Jessi looked at her, and it was just an uncomfortable spot for Jessi to be in.

But that was three years ago. Hopefully, her sister would have grown up, and things would be a lot better this time around. All that Jessi wanted to do was to be grateful that she was able to take what may have been her last family trip because she really would come home and look for a job after the trip, and just concentrate on having fun.

Jessi really hoped that it was possible, and instead of sulking about her father's anger on her mother buying her a ticket- went to cooking her father's favorite chicken and pasta dish, and even went the extra length to make an apple pie and also make homemade vanilla ice-cream.

Not one 'thank-you' did Jessi receive after her family delved into the contents of the meal, slopping the food all up.

She did not let anything get her high of getting out of town for a whole month, though.


End file.
